Time To Lance The Boil

MD is absolutely 100% again and fit for a parkrun. L asks tentatively where we're going and is rather surprised that I choose Forest Rec, where I have munched many a bacon sandwich and chucked many a ball but have never run. Time to lance the boil.

The first problem is getting Doggo there without him knowing and therefore getting excited at the anticipated ball session. So I drive there via a different route to throw him off the trail and it works a treat.

The run goes roughly ok. MD gets his comfort break in before the start but we have to stand so far back behind everyone else because of his excited barking that in the morning’s dense fog we don’t see everyone else start until they are halfway down the first stretch. Cue a manic sprint from us both, delayed by a bit of lead biting (I must stop doing that), and then a lot of overtaking up the grass on the inside.

Our time is good but not a PB due to that delayed start. Then it’s a long leisurely breakfast as L has cancelled her 10am Pilates before she heads off for her still booked 11am Pilates and then onto the 12:30 warm down I have booked for her back at home.

Then it’s the football. My favourite day, FA Cup 3^rd Round day, and Derby win impressively at West Bromwich Albion.

In the evening it’s my friend’s 50^th Birthday Celebration which is at the Brunswick. He was going to book a room for it but hasn’t which is probably wise as there aren’t that many of us. Black Santa, presumably Christmas leftovers, is added to my list while L’s New Year’s drink is whiskey and soda as apparently its low calorie. She clearly intends to be up competing with me in the half marathons this year.

(Saturday 7^th January)

Sheltered Life

Regime change has some unexpected side effects at 5am but what can you do other than go with it. Then I walk Doggo with a limp. Him, not me.

I’m on the bus today as I’m heading off to Birmingham straight from work. This is for the 50^th birthday of someone I was at Trent Polytechnic with back in the late 1980s. We have communicated regularly on email but somehow it’s been around 12 years since we last physically met up. Oops.

I am getting the 5:30 train over and another of our old group from Poly is joining me. It’s not been quite so long since I last saw him e.g. last month and regularly before then. We get a message that they have started without us in Birmingham, at about 2pm to be precise. So it could almost be all over by the time we get there.

We arrive in Brum and are directed to the delightfully named Hen and Chickens on Constitution Hill. It looks a right dump but has beer and serves a decent curry, so it certainly ticks a few boxes. Apart from seeing my friend for the first time in many years it’s also good to meet some of his work colleagues with whom I play the online football game Xpert Eleven. It’s good to put faces to names.

Then we head into the centre and to the Mailbox. Where we end up somewhere near the finish of the Black Country Half Marathon, which runs along the canal from Wolverhampton to Birmingham.

We go in a couple of bars that I normally wouldn’t be seen dead in. The first is ok but the second one is a cocktail bar where the drinks menu is lost on me but they do serve something as boring as a lager, so that will have to do. The bar did have an upside clothes but it really must be a sign that you’re getting old when you are wondering what is holding some of the skimpy outfits in place.

By now my travel partner has gone home after not feeling well and the birthday boy isn’t looking at his finest either. Our next stop is Broad Street where I have my first ever Jager Bomb, clearly I’ve lead a sheltered life.

Eventually I leave them to head to the strip club without me, apparently birthday boy doesn’t make it either, and head for the last train. L is on hand to pick me up from Derby. It’s a good night but obviously not as good as a normal Friday night.

(Friday 2^nd September)

The Invigorating Glow

I cycle to work and then whilst still in the invigorating glow of post-exercise, I open my emails and then two or three clicks later... I’ve entered the 2017 Outlaw Half. Bugger. I try and convince myself that this is a 50th birthday present to myself. I must really hate myself.

I’ve only just recovered from click, click, entering the Nottingham Half... VIP package no less.

L contemplates a pump class unless... it certainly is, today is the last day of the week at work as we’re on holiday from tomorrow. Today is Friday.

(Wednesday 17^th August)

A Voyage Of Discovery

After a morning session on the park with the boys, L and I embark on a voyage of discovery. Barrow upon Soar by bus and train. Amazingly there is both on a bank holiday and we can even get back at the ridiculous hour of 9:45pm.

The occasion is my friend’s 50^th birthday and it’s a Hawaii Five-0 night in her honour. A very good night it is too. More worryingly there are going to be more of these Five-0 nights in the coming few years. One of which will belong to me. 

(Monday 25^th August)

Tapas

L works from home today because we’re out again tonight and the dogs could really do with some company. That’s if somebody would care to wake them up and tell them that they have company.

Surprisingly the head is not too bad after last night’s fairly heavy night with another due tonight as I’ve promised to take Squash Opponent to Brew Dog for a few 8%ers. Tonight is the occasion of his 50th birthday, for which he embarked on a challenge a bit like L’s 500 mile challenge for her 50th.

Only he went via a route of amassing 500 points by running km, walking km, playing squash/badminton games, golf holes and then more bizarrely alcohol free nights and vegetarian meals. I told him that was too easy and he doubled it to 1000 points. Which was better... but then he achieved it with a month to spare by amassing extra points in some of the ‘easier’ categories at the expense of running kms. Leaving 65k unran!

I insisted he do it and, to be fair, eventually, he did. Leaving just 4k left on his walking total, which I thought might save him the taxi fare tonight but he opted to do it this morning instead.

So after a few in Brew Dog we head off for Greek Tapas at Yamas.

It was supposed to be Spanish Tapas, that was until I enquired whether there was a hidden message in the fact that his partner had picked a dungeon underneath the Galleries of Justice in which to celebrate his birthday. When I point this out they changed the venue.

The original place, Iberico, sounded really good. Rave reviews too. I liked the sound of a cheeseboard as a starter. They probably even have blindfolds for uneasy guests. L and I have vowed to make it next on our list of places to try.

Yamas is good though, the place is quite quiet but the food is plentiful and nice enough, if a bit, well, Greek. The wine flows and the champagne too, not that I’m a fan of the bubbly. They even give us a free drink to finish, which makes you think, oh no is the bill that bad, but it wasn’t too horrific.

(Friday 12th October)